First Look: Pies ‘n’ Thighs
Arthur Bovino — March 02, 2010
From top clockwise: Literally, Pies (Key Lime and Tarheel) and Thighs (Chicken Box with Biscuit), inside, and outside.
It is one of the reassuring quirks of a city that is constantly changing that occasionally it returns something once given up for lost. So it is with Pies-n-Thighs, Williamsburg’s own Mary Mac’s.
The original (literally under a bridge down by the river), by Sarah Buck and Stephen Tanner, was a place that people felt they had discovered even after it was trendy. You couldn’t be mad at it for becoming popular. And when it closed, you felt as if a good friend who knew how to perform miracles in a kitchen smaller than yours, had moved.
Everyone knew it would be a hit when it reopened. The question was, “When?”
First Look: Bistro Vendôme
Arthur Bovino — February 19, 2010
Clockwise from top: Australian Rack of Lamb with Potato Gratin and Rosemary Jus, Mussels Provençale, Exterior.
In a city plush with new menus touting the trendiest ingredients and applications, the opening of a French bistro that serves classics like moules frites and escargots could be easily overlooked. After being invited to Pascal Petiteau’s newly-opened Bistro Vendôme, we can report that that would be a shame. Bistro Vendôme smells of new restaurant. The wood floors shine and the paint is fresh, but it’s filled with warm lighting and once you sit down, the sop-it-up scent of butter and garlic.
More About Bistro Vendôme with the Full Slideshow >>
First Look: Totonno’s Reopens
Arthur Bovino — February 12, 2010
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Cheese Pizza.
Frank Ciminieri filled the fridge with small bottles of wine while talking about how much he loves Cash Cab, “I watch it for two hours in the morning when I wake up and two hours at night.”
His sister, Cookie, bemoaned the lack of mirrors in the restaurant and said, “We need some music in here.” So a customer obliged by singing Louis Prima in between taking pictures on his iPhone. Eleven months after a fire shut it down, Totonno’s is back.
The large cheese pie ($19.50) was delicious. The center crust was as thin as the styrofoam plate it sat on, the edge’s crust was light, airy, and delicate, and the upskirt was covered with wonderful, large raised flecks. That thinness created a ratio of cheese and sauce that even makes sauce-monkeys happy. And with the opening, making New Yorkers happy with pizza will be routine once again in Coney Island.
Good luck, Totonno’s. Welcome back.
Click Here for the Totonno's Pizza Porn >>
Featured Restaurant: The Meatball Shop
Arthur Bovino — February 10, 2010
Clockwise from top: Spicy Pork Meatballs with Spicy Meat Sauce over Rigatoni, Chicken and Salmon Meatball Sliders, Beef Meatball Hero, and White Beans.
Meatballs. Even if you didn’t grow up in an Italian-American household, just bringing the word up in conversations can kick off impassioned discussions that involve meat methodology, combination theorizing, and philosophizing about technique. But a restaurant dedicated solely to meatballs? That would have made my great-grandfather laugh. And that’s exactly what co-owners, Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow, are going to do with The Meatball Shop, all the way to the bank.
First Look: Mile End
GutterGourmet — February 01, 2010
Top: Mile End’s Smoked Meat Sandwich Bottom left, Exterior. Right, Jars of pickled cabbage.
Like the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton introducing traditional American blues to a new generation in the 60’s, sometimes it takes a foreigner to make you appreciate your own culture. So, maybe it’s not crazy that a French Canadian can make New Yorkers remember what the soul of a great Jewish deli is all about. Mile End (named after a neighborhood in Montreal) in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill is faithfully recreating Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen much the same way that Hill Country recreated Lockhart’s Kreuz Market barbecue.
First Look: Lunch at 8st Kitchen
Arthur Bovino — January 25, 2010
Ar Bap: Flying Fish Roe with Pickled Daikon, Cucumbers, and Carrot over Rice.
Always Hungry brought you the first look at K-Town moving downtown, when 8st Kitchen opened in November. Well, now they’ve started serving lunch. Familiar dishes from the regular menu have made the roster, like the Bi Bim Bap ($8) and the Yook Hwe Bi Bim Bap. Other dishes, like the addictive, spicy, chicken— Dahk Gui— have been reinterpreted slightly: Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap with Spicy Chicken and Melted Cheese ($8.00). But the two dishes that deserve the most attention are the new ones: the colorful Ar Bap, and a cheesy Rice Gratin.
If you haven’t had Ar Bap, but you like roe, you’ll enjoy this ($10). As the hot bowl is set down, rice crackles and the scent of flying fish roe reminds you of that ocean smell that sneaks up on you as you approach the water. The rice is also covered with an immaculately portioned pinwheel of chopped vegetables: pickled daikons, cucumbers, and carrots. It’s almost too pretty to eat. Once tossed, each bite is soft and crunchy, with little bursts of roe. It’s taken up a notch by adding in the side of kimchee.
As for the Rice Gratin ($8), think Korean risotto with shrimp, marinated cod roe, mozzarella, and chopped onions and peppers. It’s a very easy dish to eat at the window bar while watching people trudge through the winter day outside. You’ll polish it off before you know it.
Click here for more photographs of lunch dishes at 8st Kitchen >>
First Look: Led Zeppole
Arthur Bovino — January 15, 2010
Zeppole with Powdered Sugar and Maple Syrup at Led Zeppole.
Last night was the opening of Led Zeppole, Artichoke Basille’s friendly boardwalk dessert stand just a few doors from the crowded pizzeria. The namesake zeppoles are fist-sized, spongy, fried dough rounds with crisp exteriors covered in powdered sugar. The option of a drizzle of maple syrup makes them taste like breakfast. At $1 each, they’re a ridiculously good deal. The funnel cake ($4.00), which wasn’t at all greasy, is what you always wish you’d get at the amusement park.
The cannolis ($3.50/each) were good, with the option of being topped with almonds, chocolate chips, or one on each side, but the real showstopper was the calzone ($5.00). It’s a thin crust covered with Parmesan (you can ask for more if you want) that tears easily so the creamy mozzarella-ricotta mixture can spill out and be slurped up. The folks behind the counter said they’ll be experimenting with some other non-dessert options (pepperoni or ham) as an alternative to waiting on the Artichoke line for something savory, as well as testing out some sweet calzones.
Click here for pictures of zeppoles, cannolis and calzones >>
First Look: Choptank’s Fried Chicken
Arthur Bovino — January 14, 2010
Choptank’s Fried Chicken with Black Pepper Honey.
Back in May, we told you about the Fried Chicken that Chef Matthew Schaefer was serving at Mermaid Inn in the East Village. It was the restaurant’s obligatory non-seafood item, and for what it was, it was quite good. Schaefer, who left Mermaid Inn last July, is now at the helm of the just opened Choptank, and he took his recipe for fried chicken with him.
Fried Chicken ($20) isn’t the only meat item on the menu at Choptank. It’s joined by several others, including the Virginia Ham Plate, a tasty Steak with Sweetbread Gravy, and of course, the obligatory burger. But Schaefer has reassembled the dish and he seems to have fine-tuned its preparation. The Mermaid Inn served three large, incredibly moist and juicy pieces. There are a few more pieces on this plate and while it’s still juicy, it’s not quite as wet, so the fried exterior seems to adhere better. The crumbly corn bread is gone, and the oversalted collard greens are now something to finish eating. There’s also a small saucer of black pepper honey, for dipping.
First Look: Lunch at The Breslin Bar & Dining Room
Arthur Bovino — November 13, 2009
Chargrilled Beef Tongue Sandwich with Lentil Soup.
The action in The Breslin’s dining room is impressive. It’s jumping, and with a good vibe. Feels as if you’ve been transported into a cool, cleaned up version of the Edmont Hotel in The Catcher in the Rye.
After several meals we’ve sampled most of the menu. Beef Tongue Sandwich. Bubble and Squeak. Onion and Bone Marrow Soup. This is what we envisioned when we heard April Bloomfield was opening her next restaurant, The Breslin Bar & Dining Room (view) in the ACE Hotel (site). These dishes mostly hit the mark. Others were uneven.
The Beef Tongue Sandwich may currently be the strongest dish. The accompanying lentil soup has the overly-flavorful profile associated with the chef. While good, it’s salty— helpful seasoning in which to dip the sandwich. The better soup is the Onion and Bone Marrow. Thick, rich and full of thin onions.
Click Here for a First Look at Pictures of Lunch at The Breslin Bar & Dining Room >>
First Look: 8st Kitchen
Arthur Bovino — November 06, 2009
Yook Hoe Moo Chim, $8.00. 8st Kitchen.
K-town has moved downtown. 8st Kitchen, the new sister restaurant of Koreatown stalwart, Third Floor Cafe, officially opens for business tonight. Unlike with Third Floor, there’s no optical storefront, no Maxwell Smart-like, bathroom-stall sized elevator to an upstairs lounge, it’s all ground floor and glass window front.
The restaurant’s opening has been spearheaded by Third Floor’s good-natured manager, Jung-min Kim, with Chef Sung Ho Lim (right) in the kitchen. As Grub Street noted, the menu features traditional Korean dishes that get the occasional Japanese flourish, including Korean pancakes (Jōn), grilled or roasted meat dishes (Gui), wok or stir-fried dishes (Bok Keŭm), and rice and noodle dishes and sides (Bap and Gook Soo). Proteins vary from ground beef and cod fillet to squid, pork belly, rib eye and short ribs, with rice, noodles, and rice cakes. There are old favorites like Bul Go Ki and Bi Bim Bap, as well as Bo Ssäm with pork belly, pickled cabbage, daikon salad and oyster.
Among the dishes sampled during this First Look, the Yook Hoe Moo Chim (a Korean steak tartare), the Hae Mool Pa Jōn (Pancake with Shellfish and Squid), and the Bul Go Ki Ddōk Bok Ki (Rice Cake with Soy-Marinated Kobe Rib-Eye), were particularly strong. Some of these dishes are going to be especially good eating during chilly weather, but no matter which season, the Hae Mool Pa Jōn is the perfect well-seasoned, lip-smacking snack to eat with a beer at either the beginning of a night or the end of one.
Address: 22 West 8th Street (map), (212) 477-7755.
Hours: Sun – Wed, 5pm-11pm; Thur – Sat, 5pm-2am.
FirstLook: Sigmund Pretzel Shop
Arthur Bovino — November 03, 2009
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Left row, Salt Pretzels (front) and Poppy Pretzels (back). 2nd row: Jalapeño Cheddar Pretzels (front) and Sesame Pretzels (back). 3rd row: Caraway Pretzels. Right, Lina Kulchinsky.
For a city with so many pretzel stands, New York has some horrible pretzels. The dry, mass-produced street variety are good for filling the chilly fall air with the appealing scent of hot charcoals and warm bread, that’s about it. Not to say Auntie Anne’s are bad (that smell was chemically engineered for world domination), but when a chain makes New York’s best it’s a sad state of affairs. Beer gardens like Radegast Hall & Biergarten and Zum Schneider are helping to remedy this, and now there’s new hope with Sigmund Pretzel Shop on the Lower East Side (map).
Click Here for Pictures of Sigmund's Pretzels and Donuts. >>
FirstLook: MARK Burger
The Hungry Goat — October 20, 2009
MARK Burger’s Beef Slider, $2.00.
With everyone obsessing over Bill’s Bar & Burger there is a sleeper that is going under the radar that may just be serving the best sliders in New York. It was hard to imagine that something could have been missing from the already cramped restaurant row that is St. Mark’s Place. But with last week’s opening of MARK Burger (view), it became alarmingly clear that what it was missing—craving, even—was a good, cheap burger (or in this case slider) joint.
FirstLook: Gansevoort 69
The Gluttoness — October 15, 2009
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Tater Tots with Trio of Dips.
On paper, Florent’s reincarnation, Gansevoort 69 (view), is everything you’d want, especially if you live near the Meatpacking District — a sexy, upscale diner with 24-hour service. Granted, it has only been about two weeks since the ‘Grand Opening’ was declared, but everything save the service has been shaky. During a recent panel]thought-for-food/entry/alwayslearning-are-critics-important/, Danny Meyer inspired me to consider, while forming my opinion, whether a restaurant’s staff is trying. The staff at Gansevoort 69 is definitely trying, but given that the fries and desserts were its strengths, it’s currently a B-, a place to go at night’s end for one last drink and a dessert, or for drinks and free tater tots between club-hopping.
FirstLook: Ed’s Chowder House
The Gluttoness — October 05, 2009
The exterior of Ed’s Chowder House, and the raw bar, inside.
When news broke about Center Cut’s transformation into Ed’s Chowder House (view), I instantly had confidence in Jeffrey Chodorow’s new direction with Eighty-One’s Chef Ed Brown. After City Harvest’s Street & Savory Event in June, I named Brown’s Crispy Fried Clam Roll the evening’s best savory bite. Considering that Center Cut was bad and remarkably over-priced, a sophisticated clam shack seemed worth a shot (though said Clam Roll is nowhere to be found). The stately decor and older crowd hasn’t changed much, but both the bar (with it’s own menu) and dining room are crowded with diners now that buttery Lobster Rolls are flying out of the kitchen a la Pearl Oyster Bar.
FirstLook: A Voce Columbus
Jeff Zalaznick — September 18, 2009
Bomboloni alla Toscana with Chocolate Sauce.
The new A Voce Columbus (restaurant page) is a fabulous addition to the Time Warner Building. There has been a major void in the building, namely Italian and something high end that is not over the top and that can satisfy a wide array of diners. This fills both, and there is no doubt that Missy Robbins is going to be very successful there. With the exception of the additions of a vegetable antipasti and salumi menu, the food at A Voce Columbus doesn’t stray far from the Flatiron outpost. But it is certainly a more mature version of its precursor, and one fitting the new location.
In short, The Fennel and Chili Marinated Brick Chicken was fabulous, the Pork Chop with Roasted Abalone Mushrooms was excellent, and as we’ve noted before, the Bomboloni, which we once named our #1 dessert donut in New York City, were insane. That being said, as good as the food is, the restaurant’s greatest achievement may be taking over one of the most asinine spaces in New York City and turning it into a great room.
Here is your AlwaysHungryNY.com first look.
Bread with Sardinian Sheep’s Milk Ricotta.
Vegetable Antipasti with Roasted Peppers, Zucchini, Onions and Tomatoes.
Click here for more great pictures of a meal at A Voce Columbus. >>
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